Prayers for Lent 3, 28 February 2016

Good morning, big god, we come to prayer, spare us a moment and bend your ear to listen to us while we talk words. Come among us, holy spirit, we can wait, for we are waiting on you. We welcome you in, on the hot sweaty air, the cloudless blue skies, the long evenings. We love this summer season you have sent us, but don’t get us wrong, we could still do with a bit of rain, in your good time, please.

As it’s this time of year again, we’re back at work, school’s in, and the next thing we know, there’s university students back, filling up our streets with young people, and our ears with their noise. Now the weather’s settled, everyone is back. Our city revives from its long summer amnesia and the days of the year begin. Welcome us all in, and bring about your kingdom. We are a motley bunch: working and retired, young and old, families and children and single people. So welcome us all in, the familiar and the new faces, people who are coming and going, all of us part of your work for our salvation.

We pray for your church – keep us doing good works: to be a strength for those who need our support; to be a home to the wanderers, whether pilgrims, tourists or those seeking sanctuary; to be alongside those who need us to sit with them; and to live within our doubts. Remember our church leaders, our moderator, Andrew Norton, Assembly Office in Wellington, and others around our islands. We pray for the peace of our national church.

We pray for those you have given authority on earth, the Governor-General and the ministers of our government. We pray for our leaders in parliament and in council, may our representatives lay aside their differences and their own interests, to govern the country and our city, to maintain justice, and preserve our welfare and peace.

God defend New Zealand, keep our islands within your protection. We are here on the edge of the world. Your oceans, they surround our islands, preserving us from the conflicts of the world flooding across our borders. Yet they still come to us. We pray for those in Fiji and Vanuatu, our island neighbours, repairing their homes after storms. We give thanks for our defense forces lending a hand in the work of peace and security rebuilding in the islands. Strengthen the work of our hands, Lord, strengthen the work of our hands. Keep us working as good neighbours to support other nations, to hold back the storms and restore the bounty of our ocean. May the land, sea, and sky join together as our symbol of peace.

Remember those who have come to these islands as refugees, both welcome and unwelcome, scattered in different camps, different homes, different countries. We especially remember those who are coming to our city, may they be at home here, a part of lives. Let them find what is good in Dunedin – homes to live in, work to live, peace of mind and cure for the soul, an escape from vulnerable places with teeth like a shark, across hostile land and sea. Make our place a safe place both for new chums escaping violence in the homeland as well as for us who live here.

We remember our own people, present today, and in empty pews where memory is their ghost. When we are troubled, give us your heart’s ease. Heal us in body, mind and spirit. Make us to know your joy again, and let us join with those who celebrate. Jesus, teach us to party, and to celebrate as you did in the homes of the holy land. Bring us into the time of your great feast where we will party until the stars go out, and may there be cake.

Now, teach us to pray, the same words you taught your disciples to pray. We say together…

The Unfruitful Fig Tree and the Servant’s Duty by Kazakhstan artist Nelly Bube, Luke 13:1-9

Grace Notes for Lent 2

• Griogair I’m in an Introduction to Gaelic course again, and it’s a little treat to find that Gaelic isn’t just traditional songs.  It’s making music in a modern medium, Gaelic Hip Hop.
• A 155- year old mouse trap claims its latest victim – it’s still hungry!
• The 10 best librarians on screen – seven out of ten are women.
• The questions you might be too nervous to ask about Waitangi Day – this is a good summary which covers pretty much what I’ve read elsewhere.  We complain, we think, we grow.
• Lengthen – Lent, from Old English Lencten, the long time, the Great Fast, marks for me in the Hypernotiides the end of summer.  The thistledown is in the air, the leaves begin to fall, sunrise is later, but the days are still warm.  This description, from Bella Caledonia to clean up after a season, is a good one.
• The significance of a diamond-studden bicycle, c 1890 – jewelry for the rational woman.
• ‘Yet no clear fact to be discerned’: the New Zealand response to the 1916 Easter Uprising – A two day conference organised by the Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies.  I plan to go.

John Swinton – Practical Theology

I think that this is my first lecture report for 2016, John Swinton’s inaugural address to the Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership.

I guess Practical Theology is something like practical witchcraft.  It has moved on from the days of “When you throw a clump of earth on the coffin make sure it doesn’t contain stones.  The sound will offend the family and other mourners.”

It’s a contrast of academic and faith-based theology.  Academic theology is knowledge of god; systematic, observed knowledge, scientia. Faith-based theology is knowledge about god, wisdom based on loving god and the people who love god, sapientia.  (Is this knowledge subjective?)

What is love? Whoever does not love does not know god, for god is love, 1 John 4:8. Love is god.  An action.

Doctrine shapes our imagination. Take every thought captive to Christ.

What happens when personality changes?  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in god, Colossians 3:3. We are who we are in Christ — and that is hidden from us. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we shall face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known, 1 Corinthians 13:12.  Self is always a mystery. We tend to create our identity in self-sovereignty, what we know about ourselves.  Jesus Christ is died and risen again for us. Christ has done it all. Life is hidden for now.  Uncle Karl’s new orthodoxy speaks again.

We move from what was to what is, the bridge is Jesus.

The river washes downstream — the riverbed remains.

John Swinton, University of Aberdeen, at Knox College, Dunedin, Photo: Steve Taylor

 

Grace Notes, February the Sixth, 2016

From the Guardian Long Read:

• No diet, no detox: how to relearn the art of eating
• Is humour the best weapon against Europe’s new wave of far-right nationalism?
• Big Pharma’s worst nightmare

From Stuff: Police door knock ‘known activists’ ahead of Trans-Pacific Partnership Protests

Last year I went down to the Octagon in Dunedin for a protest in support of health.  It turned out to be a small group, and I nearly walked by without stopping.  As there were people still joining I stepped up into the group.  I was glad that I did.  The group was made up of mental health patients and their supporters.  They were a group of people who needed to be heard or risk being crushed under an unresponsive system.  If I heard their stories then I was glad to do so.  The demonstration had been organised by the person in the Stuff article.  I am unhappy to read that they have been visited by the police to cause intimidation.

End of a brighter note, from Radio New Zealand Concert: The Circumstances of Beethoven’s Symphonies.  Now I want to read more about Beethoven.